Influencing Factors and Consequences of Academic Procrastination: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Academic procrastination is a common concern in contemporary educational settings and is often understood as a failure of self-regulation rather than solely a time-management problem. Although many empirical studies have examined this issue, evidence on its influencing factors and consequences remains dispersed across educational contexts. This systematic review aimed to identify, categorise and synthesise recent empirical evidence on factors associated with academic procrastination and its major consequences among learners. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework. A literature search was conducted in the Scopus database using terms related to academic procrastination, procrastination, students, learners and education. From an initial pool of 1021 records, 469 records were removed during screening, leaving 552 records for further assessment. After title and abstract screening, 501 records were excluded, and 51 empirical studies published between 2020 and 2026 were included in the qualitative synthesis. The selected studies were examined through qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that academic procrastination is influenced by four broad domains: psychological, social, contextual and technological. Psychological factors, particularly self-regulation, academic self-efficacy, motivation, anxiety, stress, perfectionism and self-control, were most frequently reported. The review also shows that most included studies used quantitative methods and focused mainly on tertiary-level students. Reported consequences included poor academic performance, reduced achievement, lower academic success, weak task organisation, reduced motivation, stress, anxiety and other negative emotional outcomes. The review highlights the need for broader methodological approaches and further intervention-based research to address academic procrastination across learner groups.